Honor In Chronicle Of A Death Foretold

Gabriel García Marquez’s journalistic and dramatic novel, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, is introduced with the recount of Santiago Nasar’s death. Originally written in Spanish, Santiago’s brutal murder is caused by the social expectations of honour that ultimately led to his demise regardless of his suspected innocence. Garcia Marquez constructs an external perspective in order to unite a haphazard plot that depicts the drastic measures taken to restore honour to the Vicario family. Alongside the notions of injustice and refutation, the Vicario brothers are forced to commit the atrocious act of homicide, while these actions are seen as rightful and just by many in the community.

A perspective in which the ideology of honour is presented

Upon realisation of Angela Vicario’s lost virginity, Pablo and Pedro Vicario set out to murder the man who supposedly stole her virginity and brought dishonour to their family. Although the Vicario brothers were fully aware of their objectives, it was evident they preferred to spare the life of Santiago Nasar, or at least avoid the consequences of murder. When the opportunity arose, the Vicario brothers would not hesitate to confess “[They were] going to kill Santiago Nasar” (31). In a similar setting, the Vicario brothers even attempted to casually declare “that [they were] looking for [Santiago Nasar] to kill him” (32). García Marquez utilises these direct quotes from the characters in order to resonate the power of honour and generate a sense of incapacity and custody to an enforced social expectation. At one illustration, Clotilde Almendra realises and sympathises the responsibility laid upon the Vicario brothers and hopes “to spare those poor boys from the horrible duty that’s fallen on them” (34). Once again, this reinforces the fact that honour is not an optional path, which cannot be avoided. Even when Clotilde and Colonel Aponte arrived to the conclusion of the inevitable events that would unravel, they expressed a sense of immobilisation, unable to prevent the purpose of their duty. Honour is a depiction of an unmentioned law meant to remain unchangeable where neither the wealthiest, the most powerful or the law enforces are able to contradict its final word. García Marquez proceeds to empower his audience with a display of powerlessness by constructing a dolorous and vexing scene of the two brothers drinking their anxieties away as “Their shirts were dried with sweat… They drank the second bottle more slowly, sitting down, looking insistently toward Placida Linero's house on the sidewalk across the way, where the windows were dark.” (32). The